Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Green)

Awkward. That’s the only way to describe the next hour. Just awkward.

Red was off sulking in his room like the loser he is, Orange went back to his beloved laptop, and Blue was washing the frying pan, her face completely neutral. (She’d insisted on doing it.) She probably felt seriously guilty for what happened, but none of it was really her fault. If anything, it was mine and Red’s.

I’d met up with Orange and Red almost a year ago, and I could still remember how it felt to be a newbie to all this fighting stuff. Every single mistake I made felt about ten times worse, since it’s only natural to want to prove myself after seeing Red and Orange in action. That was back when we didn’t have a permanent base, and Orange still went out pretty often.

There were a lot of things I didn’t know back then. Fighting techniques and staying hidden while on the move, not to mention stealth missions… All of it overwhelmed me, but not as much as learning about Red’s past. Which, of course, Blue didn’t know about.

“Hey, Blue?” I asked gently. “Are you done with that? You’ve scrubbed it over about ten times.”

“Oh! Yeah, I guess.” She turned, holding up the pan. “Where should I put this?”

“Just leave it there. It’s more convenient that way.”

“Yeah. Right. Okay.” Blue left the pan on the counter and sat down next to me. She stared ahead for a while, completely silent.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I told her gently.

“Yeah, it was. I started the whole thing.”

“How were you supposed to know the question was taboo? And for that matter, how were you supposed to know Red and I were immature enough to start a fight over a simple question?”

“I should’ve seen it coming. I shouldn’t have asked. I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you’re not.” I looked away, because the kind of thing I told her next isn’t really something I like to admit. “I did the exact same thing, only slightly worse.”

“Yeah? And what would that be?”

I sighed, recalling the unpleasant memory. “My exact words were, ‘You’re such an idiot! Always moaning about that Reuben guy. Who is he, anyway? He obviously ditched you, so he’s not important! Quit mooning over the past!’”

Blue winced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, kinda not the best thing to say to Mr. Moronic at the time. But hey, at least it got him to stop trying to blow up the flower shop.”

“Were the flower shop owners supporters of Mask?”

I blinked. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

She let out a soft chuckle. “We may or may not have ‘accidentally’ destroyed their windows in an incident involving a truck, some underage driving, and a flying street sign.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “You’re going to fit right in here, Blue.”

Red chose that moment to stroll out of his room, his expression considerably lighter. “I need some water,” he announced, as if I were going to stand up and get it for him.

Yup, the idiot I knew was back.

I pointed to the door. “Go melt some snow.”

“Whaaat?! No way, that’s gross!”

“It’s not gross, you just have to avoid the yellow snow, since 99 percent of the time, it happens to not be lemonade.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s because it happens to be – ”

“Here,” Blue interrupted, tossing him a chunk of ice. He grinned.

“Thanks. See, Green? Blue’s cool. Why can’t you be like that?”

“Oh, come on. You’re just babying him, Blue. Don’t spoil the little kid.”

“I am not a little kid! I’m pretty sure that period of time ended at six or seven years old, and I’m pretty darn sure I’m not six or seven!”

“Of course you aren’t. You act more like a two-year-old.”

“And you act like a ninety-year-old grandma! Sheesh. You need to learn how to have fun once in a while.”

“Your definition of fun involves strapping jet packs to your shoes and flying over Rogue City.”

“That would be fun!”

I sighed, turning to Blue. “You see? Two-year-old.”

She laughed for the first time since lunch. “You two really don’t like each other, do you?”

“Barely tolerate. Not hate or dislike. Barely tolerate.” I corrected.

“If you’re done with the semantics,” Orange’s voice called from his room, “I need you in here.”

“The Mighty One calls,” Red drawled, sliding his hands into his pockets and heading off to Orange’s room. Blue and I followed.

We had no idea at the time that what would happen next would cause a huge chain of events that would decide whether or not we still had a chance of winning this war – or not.

(Blue)

When we arrived, the Mighty One was once again messing around with his laptop. Obviously.

Orange looked up, glasses reflecting the light from the screen, and asked an extremely strange question:

“Do any of you have any memories regarding Violet?”

Silence.

“What do you mean?” Green questioned.

“All right, so before the former members of the Seven wiped our minds to reduce the risk of Mask finding someone to interrogate about our locations, there was an occasion where they let us all meet for one day, correct?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “It was so that we would have some idea of who the other Seven were supposed to be, and that, of course, reduced the risk of having imposters.”

“Correct. And when the mind-wipe happened, they left us the memory of that day for that very reason.”

“That’s right. So what?”

“I know it might be a little fuzzy, but think. I’m pretty sure I remember Red, Yellow, and Indigo. I faintly recall a girl with blue hair, who stuck close to an older boy. I assume that was you. And, of course, the whole thing took place at Green’s house. But what about Violet?”

My stomach twisted at the mention of the boy, but I managed to force myself to think. I came up with an answer I didn’t like.

“There’s no Violet.”

“That’s right,” Green said, eyes widening. “Violet never showed up!”

“Red?” Orange asked, expression completely neutral. Red shook his head.

“No Violet.”

“Exactly. So the question is, what happened to Violet?” Orange jabbed a finger at his laptop. “I can’t find her file anywhere. Which can only mean three things: Either Violet is dead, which I highly doubt since they’d be announcing it everywhere; he or she never existed at all, also highly unlikely; his or her file is stored somewhere else, which we’ll have to discuss later; or they erased our memories of him or her for some reason we don’t know.”

There was a gloomy silence as we all contemplated this new bit of knowledge.

“But why do that?” Red asked. “Why the heck would they leave out our memories of Violet?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I said ‘for reasons we don’t know.’”

“This isn’t right,” I said slowly. “I mean, why Violet of all people? Why not Red, or me, or Yellow, or anyone else? What’s so special about Violet?”

“That leads me to another theory: What if there was something special about Violet? What if Violet was so important, somehow, that they couldn’t even risk us remembering who he or she was?”

“This is so freaking confusing!” Red scowled, looking irritated. “Yeah, okay, so Violet’s super strong or something. Still, how would it benefit him or her for us to not know who he or he is? I mean, it’s not like we’re gonna tell Argot anything!”

“Exactly. That’s the confusing part. Maybe they thought we wouldn’t be able to stand up to interrogation or something.”

“So to them, the secret was more important than our lives,” I said slowly. “Because you know Argot would never stop torturing us until we either gave up the secret or died. How big was this secret, anyway?”

“Well, it’s all only a theory for now,” Green pointed out. “No need to break out the depressing realizations yet.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

Still, there was a gloomy feeling in the air after this new revelation.

“So…” Red said lightheartedly, apparently trying to dispel a bit of the gloom. “Any new developments on the whereabouts of Yellow or Indigo?”

“No,” was Orange’s flat reply.

“Oh. Uh… Are you at least close?”

“No.”

“Come on, RT, you gotta have some kind of info. Give us some good news. We seriously need it after that bombshell you just dropped on us.”

“Okay, how about this? Indigo was captured by Argot.”

“Wait, what?! Then you do know his or her whereabouts! They probably have his location somewhere! You could hack into the system and find it!”

“I could… Only I can’t. They’re gone. Escaped two days ago. The authorities are baffled.”

“The authorities are always baffled,” Red muttered, looking irritated at how his developing plan was completely shot down.

“I do, however, have a new mission…” Orange said slowly. “But I really don’t want to do it.”

That didn’t sound good to me. “What’s wrong with it?”

He sighed. “It involves me going out of the base. For the second time in two days. Which I really do not want to do.”

Red’s eyes positively lit up. “Awesome! What’s the plan, RT?”

Orange let out another sigh and got up. “Might as well get going. The target’s in Orange Village. At this rate, we’ll probably get there around dark. The perfect time to strike.”

“Cool,” Green smiled. “Our first mission as a team of four. Next stop, Orange Village!”

“Wait.” I held up both hands. “Just one thing before we go.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” Red asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I really need some hair dye. I don’t think the baseball cap’s gonna cut it.”

I held up the ripped baseball cap, which really couldn’t be called a baseball cap anymore seeing as Argot had ripped it to tatters when I ran back for Red. Green sighed.

“Change of plans. Next stop: the hardware store.”